June 22, 2011

By way of Evil Reads comes what are surely the best postcards ever written by a child to a mayor about library budgets. The New York Public Library has been up against a $40 million proposed budget cut — the worst cut in their 100-year history — and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer of Sunnyside, Queens, initiated a postcard campaign to express to Mayor Bloomberg how important it is that the libraries continue to receive full funding. Librarians and library supporters had people fill out and collected the postcards. A 10-year-old girl enticed to do so by the blogger behind Screwy Decimal had the delightful results at right.

After the suggestion to “focus on what she liked about libraries rather than issuing vague threats to Mayor Bloomberg,” the girl revised with this, but also told Screwy Decimal “I don’t take any BS.” Awesome.

As she wrote, she said: “I’m spelling a lot of stuff wrong. But it will look messy if I cross it out. If he’s a good mayor, he’ll be able to read it.”

She also wrote these. This girl rocks. Bugget cuts do not.

Per the NYPL, as of this moment, the library is still facing a $40 million cut, amounting to one third of their city operating budget. You can send your own vaguely threatening or otherwise insistent letters to elected officials asking to reinstate library funding here.